S-Westerly

Whoosh. Missed that one totally.

Pyramid are a decent outfit. I've got a set of hand protectors and a fender extender on my Guzzi from them. The quoted price for a screen is pretty decent too. My OEM touring screen cost me £180.

That was a fairly horrifying read! These people really are the worst kind of bottom feeders and it's amazing to me that it's even legal.

I'll second that motion, especially when it comes to house sale. Nearly lost my mortgage once due to ineptitude on the part of the solicitor. Took a lot of last minute phone calls to sort out.

I only know one bloke with a KTM and he won't be repeating the experience. This isn't the way to increase sales.

Rode mine down into Somerset but the low sun is a bit annoying combined with the muck thrown up from the road makes visibility occasionally challenging.

It'll be interesting to see if the decline in reliability is directly linked to moving a lot of manufacturing out to Asia. Combined with relatively high prices it's not a good look for KTM. Never owned one but did try one once - the seat was dire.

Well now. I thought I was getting the old model Rukka Nivala pants but no what turned up was the latest Nivala 2 which were well beyond my budget at £1,050 (!) I paid £450 so I am very pleased. Still eye-wateringly expensive and I will not be advertising the price to herself but should be good for several years at least. My old stuff lasted 5 years then the zips and clips started failing and the trousers were no longer waterproof which at this time of year is not nice.

If I was going to do it it would be AC and northern route. I know the roads and the last legs coming south have proper services. HOWEVER I'm sure you know but the M6 at the moment is badly affected by long term roadworks with up to 2 hours delay according to overheads. That's probably a good reason for also doing that leg late in the day unless there's night closures of course.

Absolutely, you do need to check what the current draw is. Most bigger bikes should be OK but even then a check is worthwhile.

Over the years I've bought cheap thermals for a variety of purposes and I've also bought more expensive stuff made from merino wool and silk. Generally the better quality stuff is more pleasant to wear, less stinky and maybe warmer although that is difficult to judge; it also usually lasts longer. That said some stuff is insanely expensive and not worthwhile really and an awful lot depends on your budget and what other demands there are on your funds.

Helmet City do them as well.

They are thin same as liner gloves but how tight are your regular gloves? I can get them into my heaviest winter gloves but not my "medium" gloves. If you've got a Sportsbike shop nearby you may be able to try a pair?

I regularly use a keis heated vest but after a couple of hours I find my arms can get chilly so am looking at a heated liner jacket from Macna. I find the heated keis liner gloves combined with Richa Arctic winter gloves and heated grips keep my hands really warm. All the heated gear runs off the bike battery and I've had no issues. I do a fair amount of often long distance winter riding.

I'm actually not. Slept well and really glad I left when I did as my dad reckoned he had about 20 cm snow first thing.

Left Morpeth at 1600. Arrived home at 2200 but had to stop twice to defrost. Bike is even filthier than before. Didn't see a single other biker - nobody else as stupid as me. Have to go up to Glasgow for 1st week in December. Easyjet will do for that especially as company is paying.

Hey ho. The weather forecast for the weekend is utterly dire. So as I need to be home by Monday morning I'm leaving Morpeth late this afternoon to beat the weather. On a plus note at least I won't have the sun searing my eyeballs all the way south. Sometimes I wish I lived somewhere with less weather.

My Dad's toilet cistern has just started to continually fill. Why these modern ones are so bloody complicated I've no idea. Probably saving 200 ml per flush or something. I'll try and do something but otherwise I'm leaving it to Northumbrian Water for their "free" fix sometime within the millennium. Dad doesn't really care so as long as it's not flooding the place neither do I.

My (limited) experience of Lidl is that anything I might be interested in has always sold out. Either that or the toilets are closed.

The one version of winter weather I do my best to avoid is snow. The rest I can more or less manage.

You assume that they have a mind. Brain dead from birth some of these fuckwits.

My deepest sympathy. When I left home to go north my bike was all spiffy and shiny. It now looks as if I've been sharing a mud wallow with a wildebeest. Absolutely filthy all over.

Let me count the wondrous ways of Nobdom. Firstly myself for being daft enough to ride to Northumberland. Should have gone by train. However I didn't so...... Firstly we have the 49 mph idiots on the motorway who cause trucks to have to pull out constantly to get past them, then their close cousin the lane hogger who may be found in any lane inevitably going less than the current limit which leads me to the collection of Nobbest of Nobs - why are half our motorways limited to 50 mph or less!!!! Which moron decided this would be a good idea? Is their some rationale for it beyond a "let's just f**k everybody up" mindset? From what I can see all it gives you is a mass of traffic 3 or 4 lanes wide all going at virtually the same speed and inevitably too closely packed with the potential for mayhem if there's an accident. Then when you get the odd section which is nominally 70, either there's stationary traffic for some bloody reason or everyone thinks it's the start of the Le Man's 24 hrs and tries to break the sound barrier while they can. I'll gloss over the 19 mile diversion at Bedale. Going to have a whisky (MacAllan 15yo) to chill.

I hadn't ridden a bike for best part of 20 years then came back to it with a 950 Multistrada. Now on a Guzzi V100S. Tried a sport's bike - Suzuki GXR and the whole body position was just too uncomfortable for me. Don't be obsessed with a particular type or brand, try a variety and get what you are comfortable with.

Rode it 298 miles to Northumberland. Wasn't a bad run really weatherwise apart from being cold. According to bike the coldest was -2 C. "Ahem" speed windchill probably made it worse. Heated grips, gloves and vest were a definite plus. As for the actual riding - see Nob of the day.